Princess Wildfire has allergy to Math Lab Costume
04-12-19 14:44 Thanksgiving,Grandchildren
Thanksgiving is almost upon us and both thankfully and appropriately, I’m happy to report that Nazy has recovered from a virus and an allergic reaction. One morning recently, she was reluctant to get out of bed. I was…
“ … not surprised, “ I thought. “The sun has only been up a couple of hours.”
And then I went to check. Her cheeks were red and she had a fever. I gave her a massive dose of Bendryl and pulled out the rubbing alcohol. Then I called Melika. We took Nazy to urgent care where they gave her a steroid and …
“… noted that the Bendryl was the right thing to do…” I thought.
Things are now back to normal.
This week, one of Tiger’s friends celebrated her 5th birthday. We joined Melika, Tom, Tiger, Arrow, Azelle and a whole bunch more people at a Princess-themed birthday party. The birthday girl …
“.. ‘wants to remind everyone that princess costumes would be welcome’, Nazy,” I read as I considered what to wear.
‘Well, Dan, you can…”
“No, Nazy! I refuse to dress like a princess.” I replied adamantly.
“I will be the princess, you can be the prince. We got the right hat for you in Malaysia and we bought appropriate clothes in Lebanon. It’ll be great. You’ll see.”
Note: Melika and Tom have a costume closet — well, a costume room. Unlike them, Nazy and I pull costumes out of our standard closet.
We looked good…
Arrow, missing the point, was dressed up as a Yellow Crayon because…
“… yellow is my favorite color, Dan.” He explained.
Azelle was a island Princess She tired of the costume when she tried to sit down. Melika was also a Princess… there were, in fact, lots of Princesses. And lots of children. When Nazy and I moved to Santa Barbara 7 years ago, the first people we met in the city were Melika and Tom’s friends. (They have many friends.) It was a vibrant collection of talented young people doing interesting things together. There were no children. Now, they are all still friends, but it seems that everybody has children. At least 30 or 40 children were at the party. The friends are still friends, they are still young, talented and interesting. Now they are also parents.
Tom and Tiger went as Santa Barbara entrepreneurs.
Tiger’s Kindergarten teacher suggested that he join the optional ‘Math Lab’ group that meets once a month. We discussed Math as I drove him to the first session…
“Do you like Math?” I asked.
“I got to pick Math instead of coloring, Dan.”
“Wow. What do you do in Math?”
“Things like counting, adding and subtracting.”
“That sounds exciting. How much is left if you have five and take away two?”
“Three.”
“How about if you have two and take away five?”
“That’s zero and that’s not..”
“How about if you have two and you take away four?”
“That’s zero, too.”
“Two or zero?”
“Zero.”
“But that’s that same answer you got before.”
“You asked a bad question.”
In the Math Lab, we tackled problems with dice. Things like if you roll two dice three times, what’s the most you can get?”
We worked our way to part B of the last problem. “So, Tiger,” I said, “If you roll a 12 sided dice 12 times, what is the highest number you can get?”
“That would be 12 counted 12 times.”
“That’s right!” I exclaimed. “Now how much is that?”
“142?” Tiger responded immediately — and cautiously
“Not quite. How did you figure that out?”
“I guessed, Dan.”
“Let me show you some other ways.” I replied. “Good guess,” I thought.
This week we also had some special time with Arrow. Nazy and I took him to the market. He enjoys the flowers and likes to get a balloon. (A yellow balloon.) This week, our ‘balloon guy’ raised the price of the yellow balloon from $1 to $3.
Nazy and I have bemusedly watched the impeachment hearings. The Republicans, focused on answering the ‘Who is the whistleblower?’ question, are uniformly unable to process the fact that everything the whistleblower said has been confirmed. In short, the GOP response is something like: “Never mind the fire, who called the fire department?”
I could at least understand a Republican response along the lines of … “Yes, what he did was bad, but it doesn’t warrant impeachment”. But I don’t understand GOP parroting of Russian talking points or preposterous claims that Trump was only concerned about ‘corruption’.
“Well, Dan,” Nazy interrupts. “Trump is concerned about corruption.”
“That’s true, my dear. It’s the only thing he’s concerned about. Being corrupt is his core competency. My new motto for him is Quit! Bro Go!
In fact, local events remind me of current administration. We have uncontrolled wildfires nearby. Luckily, they’re not close to us — although they are pretty close to our old house. These are particularly ill-timed. The first rain in 190 days is forecast for tomorrow, the day after the fires started.
“ … not surprised, “ I thought. “The sun has only been up a couple of hours.”
And then I went to check. Her cheeks were red and she had a fever. I gave her a massive dose of Bendryl and pulled out the rubbing alcohol. Then I called Melika. We took Nazy to urgent care where they gave her a steroid and …
“… noted that the Bendryl was the right thing to do…” I thought.
Things are now back to normal.
This week, one of Tiger’s friends celebrated her 5th birthday. We joined Melika, Tom, Tiger, Arrow, Azelle and a whole bunch more people at a Princess-themed birthday party. The birthday girl …
“.. ‘wants to remind everyone that princess costumes would be welcome’, Nazy,” I read as I considered what to wear.
‘Well, Dan, you can…”
“No, Nazy! I refuse to dress like a princess.” I replied adamantly.
“I will be the princess, you can be the prince. We got the right hat for you in Malaysia and we bought appropriate clothes in Lebanon. It’ll be great. You’ll see.”
Note: Melika and Tom have a costume closet — well, a costume room. Unlike them, Nazy and I pull costumes out of our standard closet.
We looked good…
Arrow, missing the point, was dressed up as a Yellow Crayon because…
“… yellow is my favorite color, Dan.” He explained.
Azelle was a island Princess She tired of the costume when she tried to sit down. Melika was also a Princess… there were, in fact, lots of Princesses. And lots of children. When Nazy and I moved to Santa Barbara 7 years ago, the first people we met in the city were Melika and Tom’s friends. (They have many friends.) It was a vibrant collection of talented young people doing interesting things together. There were no children. Now, they are all still friends, but it seems that everybody has children. At least 30 or 40 children were at the party. The friends are still friends, they are still young, talented and interesting. Now they are also parents.
Tom and Tiger went as Santa Barbara entrepreneurs.
Tiger’s Kindergarten teacher suggested that he join the optional ‘Math Lab’ group that meets once a month. We discussed Math as I drove him to the first session…
“Do you like Math?” I asked.
“I got to pick Math instead of coloring, Dan.”
“Wow. What do you do in Math?”
“Things like counting, adding and subtracting.”
“That sounds exciting. How much is left if you have five and take away two?”
“Three.”
“How about if you have two and take away five?”
“That’s zero and that’s not..”
“How about if you have two and you take away four?”
“That’s zero, too.”
“Two or zero?”
“Zero.”
“But that’s that same answer you got before.”
“You asked a bad question.”
In the Math Lab, we tackled problems with dice. Things like if you roll two dice three times, what’s the most you can get?”
We worked our way to part B of the last problem. “So, Tiger,” I said, “If you roll a 12 sided dice 12 times, what is the highest number you can get?”
“That would be 12 counted 12 times.”
“That’s right!” I exclaimed. “Now how much is that?”
“142?” Tiger responded immediately — and cautiously
“Not quite. How did you figure that out?”
“I guessed, Dan.”
“Let me show you some other ways.” I replied. “Good guess,” I thought.
This week we also had some special time with Arrow. Nazy and I took him to the market. He enjoys the flowers and likes to get a balloon. (A yellow balloon.) This week, our ‘balloon guy’ raised the price of the yellow balloon from $1 to $3.
Nazy and I have bemusedly watched the impeachment hearings. The Republicans, focused on answering the ‘Who is the whistleblower?’ question, are uniformly unable to process the fact that everything the whistleblower said has been confirmed. In short, the GOP response is something like: “Never mind the fire, who called the fire department?”
I could at least understand a Republican response along the lines of … “Yes, what he did was bad, but it doesn’t warrant impeachment”. But I don’t understand GOP parroting of Russian talking points or preposterous claims that Trump was only concerned about ‘corruption’.
“Well, Dan,” Nazy interrupts. “Trump is concerned about corruption.”
“That’s true, my dear. It’s the only thing he’s concerned about. Being corrupt is his core competency. My new motto for him is Quit! Bro Go!
In fact, local events remind me of current administration. We have uncontrolled wildfires nearby. Luckily, they’re not close to us — although they are pretty close to our old house. These are particularly ill-timed. The first rain in 190 days is forecast for tomorrow, the day after the fires started.
For last week's letter, please click here
The Fires
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